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The I'm looking forward to public school rant...

Really and truly, I wonder how limited-resource families homeschool successfully. It seems to work out really well for upper-middle class households and above. The rest of us have some serious hurdles.

I'm struggling to find events/experiences for my child who is in preschool hs. I'm struggling with having enough time in the day to do everything and her school work with her. I'm struggling with finding enough time to fully plan a day's lesson (yes, some things are free. But you have to pick and pull through everything, which takes a great deal of time, to get a working thing in order for the next day!) We can't afford the pricey curriculums in which everything is planned out for us. I tried buying one for about 100.00 dollars and it has been a severe disappointment.I'd love to have a K-12 or Connections available at no cost, but that won't start here until 3rd grade.

There are so few events around us and places for my kids to explore that it is quite sad. It takes a great deal of legwork to find them. And the ones I do find often cost us quite a bit, but we try to do it anyway.

And then there is the guilt about doing this w/o having enough resources in place. I can't tell you how much fun that is.

I'm kind of looking forward to public school. I want my kids to learn at home and still do interesting things here. But I really want someone else to be in charge of my child's education, and for us as parents to be the supporters of that-only really taking charge of the fun things that interest the kids enough that they'd like to pursue them at home. That way there is no guilt about not offering a well-rounded education, or enough socialization time.

I could have written what u just wrote. No money for already planned curiculum, can't get everything done, etc. I also struggled spending way more time 'finding' things to use for homeschool than actually doing school. I have felt so guilty about this the whole time, and my dd is in 7th. I hate public schools. Just 2 weeks ago I joined connections academy online public school. They wanted my dd to SKIP 30-50 lessons for each subject! The reason - she has to keep up with all the other students. I asked 'where is the at your own pace? Where is the help for students who need it?' I withdrew her in 7 days. My dd also was in public from K-2. She has learning problems and they didn't help her, fought me horrendously not to help her. So, to me homeschool is the only option even though I am in the same place as you after all these years. I have recently started using 'time4learning'. It is $20 a month and is a full online curiculum. Already planned out, do it whenever you want, at your own pace, etc. It keeps up with the grades for you, too. So far it has been great! The lessons are fun and interactive. Not boring with just reading and worksheets like public school is. Public school takes the love of learning, creativity, and thinking out of students. They are just spoon fed information to spit out on state tests so school can get that money. Most parents don't know how bad public schools are. They drill, not TEACH, whatever is on the state tests so they can get that money. Most public school kids I know do 3-4 hours homework everynight, have to do extra work at home to practice for the state test, even do school work on holidays. If a child needs help, like mine, that doens't matter. They are on a 'time schedule' and if your child doesn't learn, that's too bad. We're also in a small town with hardly any outside things to do. Do you belong to homeschool groups? That's the only way we do things, besides girl scouts.

Your child is only preK? I have home educated a lot of kids and I didn't go to anything special for kids that young. We pretty well stayed at home and played, colored, read, ect.. I promise that they can learn all they need that way until they are 6 or 7. If you want your children to go to a public school then I am sure that is where they will end up. But I promise you that you can give them a better (and safer) education at home. I very highly recommend The Successful Homeschool Family Handbook by Raymond and Dorothy Moore. It is a great book. You can get used copies via Amazon.

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